The fractions of the title relate to those existing in the interval between photosensitive elements of the type used in a goniometer for measuring characteristic angles of motor vehicle wheels.

In these types of goniometers, the angle measured is the angle formed with the reference axis of the goniometers (which is perpendicular to the optical sensor and which defines an origin for the measurement of the distances in a longitudinal direction) by a light beam which is trained on the optical sensor by an optical device.

The light beam is constituted by parallel rays which are generated by a light located at a sufficiently large distance with respect to the distance between the optical device (cylindrical lens or slit) and the linear sensor.

When a cylindrical lens is used as the optical device, the focal length of the lens is equal to the distance between the lens and the sensor. In this case all the parallel rays which strike the front surface of the lens are concentrated in a line which intersects the linear sensor in a very precise zone which is conditioned not only by the exactness of the lens positioning but also by the angle to be measured which is the angle formed by the incident light beam with the line perpendicular to the linear sensor. It is obvious that as the angle becomes the greater so do the alterations of the precisely-directed light hitting the sensor, with the immediate consequence that altered images are produced by the sensor, resulting in a progressive increase in the lack of precision of the measurement.

The phenomenon is progressively more accentuated the smaller the focal distance and the greater the angle to be measured.

One way of reducing this phenomenon is to use a corrector optical group in association with the sensor. This however leads to considerable complications in construction as well as higher costs.

A further consideration is that the resolution of the linear sensor is physically connected to the distance between one photosensitive element and an adjacent one.

This means that according to known realisations it does not seem possible to determined a distance from the origin which is not equal to a whole multiple of the interval (constant) between element and element. Thus it does not seem possible to read fractions of this interval.

A similar imprecision would occur should a light beam be collimated with a transversal dimension able to generate a light spot which is smaller than the dimensions of a photosensitive light element. The result could be that the linear sensor may not even be activated in all those cases where the light beam did not strike any of the photosensitive elements.

The possible solution, of increasing the threshold of sensitivity by increasing the number of photosensitive elements per unit of length of the linear sensor, or by considerably reducing the interval between one photosensitive element and another, is at present so expensive as to be impracticable.

In any case a greater goniometer resolution for measuring the characteristic angles of a motor vehicle's wheels using linear sensors together with a greater width in the field of measurement is an established need in the field.

Document US 4,898,464 discloses a system and method for determining the position of an object, in which an output signal is compensated for the effects of ambient light, photodetector bias, etc. In particular such system and method can be employed for vehicular wheel alignment: each wheel unit comprises a photodetector array operably connected to a wheel unit microcomputer and a laser beam source directing a laser beam toward the array of another wheel unit.

Document EP 539598 discloses a method and device for detecting a position in a laser sensor which comprises a CCD array on which a light beam impinges, the point of incidence being the position to be detected. The calculation is made by determining the center of gravity of the received beam as the weighted average of the intensities detected by each single photosensitive element.

Document WO 92/19932 discloses a system for measuring the setting of vehi cl e wheels, whi ch comprises a plurality of an optoelectronic detector units, each including a plurality of photoelements and a microprocessor which functions to detect and compare the intensity of the light emitted by respective photoelements when these elements are illuminated, and provides information relating to precise position of the incident light beam on a measuring scale.

The main aim of the present invention is to obviate the limitations and drawbacks in the prior art.

An advantage of the invention is that it does not introduce any special modifications, from the constructional point of view, to the apparatus used.

These aims and advantages and others besides are all achieved by the present invention, as it is characterised in the claims that follow.

Further advantages of the present invention will better emerge from the detailed description that follows of a preferred but non-exclusive embodiment of the invention, illustrated purely by way of non-limiting example in the accompanying figures of the drawings, in which:

• figure 1 is a schematic plan view of a measurement sensor applied to a wheel of a motor vehicle;
• figure 2 is a diagram of a goniometer equipped with the sensor of figure 1;
• figure 3 is a digital schematic illustration showing the progressive signal image formed on the linear sensor;
• figure 4 shows a possible electronic diagram for processing the signals from the linear sensors;
• figure 5 is a graph relating to the generation of synchrony for the analog-digital converter;
• figure 6 shows the ratio between the synchronisation signal and the image generated by the linear sensor;
• figure 7 shows, in much-enlarged scale, the phase/time ratio between the synchronisation signal of the analog-digital converter and the signal at the output of the goniometer linear sensor amplifier.

With reference to the figures of the drawings, 1 denotes in its entirety a measuring sensor applied on a rim of a wheel 2 of a motor vehicle; the sensor 1 is for determining the characteristic angles of the wheel. The measuring sensor 1 comprises two optical goniometers 3 and 4 which are correlated with corresponding optical goniometers applied on three more measuring sensors mounted on the remaining three wheels of the motor vehicle.

Each optical goniometer is schematically constituted by a linear image optical sensor 5 which comprises a line of photo-sensitive elements 6 and by an optical device 7 which has the task of training a light beam 8 on a linear sensor 6 in the direction the angular measurement is to be made. In the illustrated example the light beam 8 is coming from a light associated to the measuring sensor mounted on one of the wheels contiguous to the wheel on which the measuring sensor 1 is mounted.

The angle measured is the angle comprised between the direction of the light beam 8 and the goniometer reference axis 9 which is defined as the axis of the optical device 7, perpendicular to the linear sensor 5 at its median point.

The following are very schematically denoted: f' is the distance, measured on the axis 9 between the optical device 7 and the linear sensor 5 (corresponding to the focal distance in the case of use of an optical device 7 constituted by a lens); d indicates the distance from the origin of the scale of distances defined by the linear sensor 5; α indicates the angle of the measurement of the angle comprises between the axis 9 and the direction of the light beam 8.

The reading of the distances from the origin o which are not whole multiples of the interval existing between one photosensitive element and another but which include fractions of the interval is done using a process which comprises:

• reading off the current image constituted by the ordered whole of the intensities of the incident radiations registered on the nearby photosensitive elements (figure 3 is a diagram with the x-coordinates showing distances from origin o and the y-coordinates showing light intensities read by single photosensitive elements);
• processing of the data included in the current image by means of a process converging towards a result which defines, with respect to a an origin determined by the intersection of the reference axis with the axis of the sensor, the distance of the point of incidence on the sensor of an ideal optical axis of the light beam.

The distance is determined by means of an interpolation process on a measurement of distance based on a comparison of the current image with a known image previously acquired by means of a calibration operation ( known as a pattern or template) which is made to run over the current image to be compared there-with using a suitable measurement system.

In particular, in a first embodiment, with T_i, i=1,...,n the totality of photosensitive elements constituting the template, and I_i, i=1,...,m, m>n, the totality of photosensitive elements constituting the current image, a possible measurement formula is the sum of the distances element by element where the distance can be the Euclidean distance, the distance of the absolute value or other; the distance in element k being:$$S_k=\sqrt{{\displaystyle \sum _i}\left(I_i-T_{i-k}\right)}$$ using Euclidean measurements
or$$S_k={\displaystyle \sum _i}\left|I_i-T_{i-k}\right|$$ using absolute measurement values. The fraction of interval between two contiguous photosensitive elements is determined using an interpolation obtained considering the local minimum of the interval k+1, k-1 in the curve passing through the distances corresponding to elements k, k+1, k-1, i.e. the fraction of interval being determinable using the ratio:$$f=\frac{S_{k+1}-S_{k-1}}{2\left(S_{k+1}-2S_k+S_{k-1}\right)}$$ where f represents the fractional part of the position of the point of incidence of the ideal optical axis of the light beam.

In a second embodiment, with T_i, i=1,...,n the totality of photosensitive elements constituting the template, and I_i, i=1,...,m, m>n, the totality of photosensitive elements constituting the current image, a possible measurement formula is the correlation i.e. the sum of the products element by element between the current image and the pattern determined in calibration with the standard ratio:$$S_k={\displaystyle \sum _i}\left(I_i\cdot T_{i-k}\right)$$ and, normalized$$S_k=\frac{{\displaystyle \sum _i}\left(I_i\cdot T_{i-k}\right)}{\sqrt{{\displaystyle \sum _i}{I}_i^2}}$$
$$f=\frac{S_{k+1}-S_{k-1}}{2\left(S_{k+1}-2S_k+S_{k-1}\right)}$$ where the fraction of interval between two contiguous photosensitive elements is determined using an interpolation obtained considering the local minimum of the interval k+1, k-1 in the curve passing through the distances corresponding to elements k, k+1, k-1, i.e. the fraction of interval being determinable using the ratio: where f represents the fractional part of the position of the point of incidence of the ideal optical axis of the light beam.

The distance d of the point of incidence on the linear sensor can also be determined using an interpolation process on the current image by directly interpolating the template.

During operation, in order to realise the analysis of the signal over more than one element the analog-digital conversion must be synchronised exactly with the scansion on the sensor, i.e. with the operation with which a synchronisation signal is used to analyse the signal contents of each photosensitive element of the sensor struck by the light trained on the optical element.

Figure 4 shows an electronic data processing system for the signal from the above-described linear sensors. The signal of the linear sensor 5 mounted on the goniometer 3 and the sensor 5 mounted on the goniometer 4 are processed by a single signal processor circuit comprising respectively the amplifier-conditioner, the analog-digital converter 11 and the synchronism generator circuit 12.

The signal processor circuit enables the synchronisation necessary between the scansion of the signals produced by the single photosensitive elements of the linear sensors 5 and the analog-digital conversion operation so as to enable an exact numerical calculation by a signal-calculation calculating circuit of each photosensitive element, so as to be able to process data concerning the angular value corresponding to the angle under which an interval between two consecutive photosensitive elements is observed.

The synchronism generator generates the signals needed for the functioning of the linear sensors, and in particular it generates the scansion synchronisms according to a known procedure, typical of linear image sensors and not part of the present invention.

In particular the synchronism generator generates, synchronously with the scansion of a single photosensitive element, a RDAD signal; this signal informs the analog-digital converter of the instant tl in which the conversion operation starts, i.e. the instant at which the available signal is surely available to the desired photosensitive element, and at which the signal is sufficiently stable (fig. 5).

Figure 5 shows (much-enlarged) the synchronisation signal 14 RDAD and the signal at the output of the linear sensor (or rather at the output of the relative amplifier-conditioner circuit) relative to the photosensitive element, and the time tl at which the converter begins the conversion. The converter, equipped with an internal multiplexor and synchronised by the RDAD signal, analyses alternatively the signal of the sensor of the goniometer 3 or 4 and makes available a Dout digitalised signal; at the same time, at the end of the conversion, an AD irquinput signal is generated which a delay, realised using the same synchronisation generator 12, conditions and returns so as to inform the calculation unit with the AD irqout signal that the data concerning the photosensitive element is available.

The result is shown in digital format in figure 3, in which the contents of the signal of the single photosensitive elements indicated on the x-axis are given in binary form on the y-axis, limited to an enlarged zone around the image formed on the linear sensor.

Figure 6 shows in less enlarged form the relation between the synchronisation signal 14 and the image 13 generated by the linear sensor; figure 7 gives a much-enlarged indication of the phase and temporal ratio between the synchronisation signal 14 of the analog-digital converter and the signal 13 at the amplifier output 9 or 10, respectively of the linear sensor of the goniometer 3 or 4.

Only by exact synchronisation between the scansion operation of the signal on the single photosensitive elements of the linear sensor and the conversion operation is it possible to gather the data on the contents of the signal of the nearby photosensitive elements in order to get the angular data with a greater whole element resolution, and thus determined the minimum angle requested.